BOOK XVIII. CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF THIRTY-TWO YEARS. FROM THE BANISHMENT OF ARCHELAUS TO THE DEPARTURE CHAP. I. How Cyrenius was sent by Cæsar to make a Taxation of Syria and Judea; and how Coponius was sent to be Procurator of Judea; concerning Judas of Galilee, and concerning the Sects that were among the Jews. § 1. Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them till he had been consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this time into Syria, with a few others, being sent by Cæsar to be a judge of that nation, and to take an account of their substance: Coponius also, a man of the equestrian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power over the Jews. Moreover, Cyrenius came himself into Judea, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their substance, and to dispose of Archelaus's money: but the Jews, although at the beginning they took the report of a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any farther opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son of Boethus, and high priest; so they, being overpersuaded by Jo. azar's words, gave an account of their estates, without any dispute about it. Yet was there one Judas,* a Gaulonite, of a city whose name was Gamala, who taking with him Saddouk,† a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to a revolt, who both said that this taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery, and exhorted the nation to assert their liberty; as if they,could procure them happiness and security for what they possessed, and an ensured enjoyment of a still greater good, which was that of the honour and glory they would thereby acquire for magnanimity. They also said, that God would not otherwise be assisting to them, than upon their joining with one another in such counsels as might be successful, and for their own advantage; and this especially, if they would set about great exploits, and not grow weary in executing the same; 90 men received what they said with pleasure, and this bold attempt proceeded to a Since St. Luke once, Acts, v. 37, and Josephus four several times, once here, sect. 6; and B. xx. ch. v. sect. 2; of the War, B. ii. chap. viii. sect. 1; and ch. xvii. sect. 8; calls this Judas, who was the pestilent author of that seditious doctrine and temper which brought the Jewish nation to utter destruetion, a Galilean; but here, sect. 1, Josephus calls him a Gaulonite, of the city Gamala; it is a greet question where this Judas was born, whether in Galilee, on the west side, or in Gaulonitis, on the east side of the river Jordan: while in the place just now cited out of the Antiquities, B. xx. ch. v. sect. 2, he is not only called a Galilean, but it is added to his story, as I have signified in the books that go before these, as if he had still called him a Galilean in those Antiquities before, as well as in that particular place, as Dean Aldrich observes, On the War, B. ii. ch. viii. sect. 1. Nor can one well imagine why he should here call him a Gaulonite, when in the 6th section following here, as well as twice of the War, he still calls him a Galilean. As for the city of Gamala, whence this Judas was derived, it determines nothing, since there were two of that name, the one in Gaulonitis, the other in Galilee. See Reland on the city or town of that name. It seems not very inprobable to me, that this Sadduc, the Pharisee, was the very same man of whom the Rabbins speak, as the unhappy but undesigning occasion of the impiety or infidelity of the Sadd cees: nor perhaps had the men this name of Sadducees till this very time, though they were a distinct sect long before. See the note on B. xiii. ch. x. sect. 5; and Dean Prideaux, as there quoted; nor do we, that I know of, find the least footsteps of such impiety or infidelity of these Sadducees before this time the Recognitions assuring us that they began about the days of John the Baptist, B. i. ch liv vol. 1. great height. All sorts of misfortunes also sprang from these men, and the nation was infected with this doctrine to an incredible degree; one violent war came upon us after another, and we lost our friends which used to alleviate our pains; there were also very great robberies and murders of our principal men. This was done in pretence indeed for the public welfare, but in reality from the hopes of gain to themselves; whence arose seditions, and from them murders of men, which sometimes fell on those of their own people (by the madness of these men towards one another, while their desire was that none of the adverse party might be left,) and sometimes on their enemies; a famine also coming upon us reduced us to the last degree of despair, as did also the taking and demolishing of cities; nay, the sedition at last increased so high, that the very temple of God was burnt down by their enemies' fire. Such were the consequences of this, that the customs of our fathers were altered, and such a change was made, as added a mighty weight toward bringing all to destruction, which these men occasioned by their thus conspiring together; for Judas and Sadducus,* who excited a fourth philosophic sect among us, and had a great many followers therein, filled our civil government with tumults at present, and laid the foundations of our future miseries by this system of philosophy, which we were before unacquainted withal; con cerning which I will discourse a little, and this the rather, because the infection which spread thence among the younger sort, who were zealous for it, brought the people to destruction. 2. The Jews had, for a great while, three sects of philosophy peculiar to themselves, the sect of the Essens, and the sect of the Sadducees, and the third sort of opinions was that of those called Pharisees; of which sects, although I have already spoken in the second book of the Jewish war, yet will I a little touch upon them now. 3. Now for the Pharisees, they live meanly, and despise delicacies in diet; and they follow the conduct of reason; and what that prescribes to them as good for them, they do; and they think they ought earnestly to strive to observe reason's dictates for practice. They also pay a respect to such as are in years; nor are they so bold as to contradict them in any thing which they have introduced; and, when they determine that all things are done by fate, they do not take away the freedom from men of acting as they think fit; since their notion is, that it hath pleased God to make a temperament, whereby what he wills is done, but so that the will of man can act virtuously or viciously. They also believe that souls have an immortal vigour in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again: on account of which doctrines they are able greatly to persuade the body of the people; and whatsoever they do about divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they perform them according to their direction; insomuch that the cities gave great attestations to them on account of their entire virtuous conduct, both in the actions of their lives, and their discourses also. 4. But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this, that souls die with the bodies; nor do they regard the observation of any thing besides what the law enjoins them; for they think it an instance of virtue to dispute with those teachers of philosophy whom they frequent; but this doctrine is received but by a few, yet by those still of the greatest dignity. But they are able almost to do nothing of themselves; for when they become magistrates, as they are unwillingly and by force sometimes obliged to be, they addict themselves to the notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would not otherwise bear them. 5. The doctrine of the Essens is this, that all things are best ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for; and when they send what they have dedicated to * See the preceding Note. God into the temple*, they do not offer sacrifices, because they have more pure lustrations of their own; on which account they are excluded from the common court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves; yet is their course of life better than that of other men; and they entirely addict themselves to husbandry. It also deserves our admiration how much they exceed all other men that addict themselves to virtue, and this in righteousness; and indeed to such a degree, that as it hath never appeared among any other men, neither Greeks nor barbarians, no, not for a little time, so hath it endured a long while among them. This is demonstrated by that institution of theirs, which will not suffer any thing to hinder them from having all things in common; so that a rich man enjoys no more of his own wealth than he who hath nothing at all. There are about four thousand men that live in this way; and neither marry wives, nor are desirous to keep servants; as thinking the latter tempts men to be unjust, and the former gives the handle to domestic quarrels; but as they live by them. selves, they minister one to another. They also appoint certain stewards to re ceive the incomes of their revenues, and of the fruits of the ground: such as are good men and priests, who are to get their corn and their food ready for them. They none of them differ from others of the Essens in their way of living, but do the most resemble those Dace, who are called Polistat [dwellers in cities.] 6. But of the fourth sect of Jewish philosophy, Judas the Galilean was the author. These men agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions; out they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord. They also do not value dying any kinds of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends, nor can any such fear make them call any man lord. And since this immoveable resolution of theirs is well known to a great many, I shall speak no farther about that matter; nor am I afraid that any thing I have said of them should be disbelieved, but rather fear that what I have said is beneath the resolution they show when they undergo pain. And it was in Gessius Florus's time that the nation began to go mad with this distemper, who was our procurator, and who occasioned the Jews to go wild with it by the abuse of his authority, and to make them revolt from the Romans. And these are the sects of Jewish philosophy. CHAP. II. How Herod and Philip built several Cities in honour of Cæsar. Concerning the Succession of Priests and Procurators; as also what befell Phraates and the Parthians. § 1. WHEN Cyrenius had now disposed of Archelaus's money, and when the taxings were come to a conclusion, which were made in the thirty-seventh year of Caesar's victory over Antony at Actium, he deprived Joazar of the high priesthood, which dignity had been conferred on him by the multitude, and he ap pointed Ananus, the son of Seth, to be high priest; while Herod and Philip had each of them received their own tetrarchy, and settled the affairs thereof. Herod also built a wall about Sepphoris (which is the security of all Galilee,) and made It seems by what Josephus says here, and Philo himself elsewhere, Op. p. 676, that these Essens did not use to go up to the Jewish festivals at Jerusalem, or to offer sacrinces there, which may be one great occasion why they are never mentioned in the ordinary books of the New Testament; though in the Apostolical Constitutions they are mentioned as those that observe the customs of their forefathers, and that without any such ill character laid upon them as is there laid upon the other sects among that people. Who these Пous in Josephus, of Krig in Strabo, among the Pythagoria Daca were, it is not easy to determine. Scaliger offers no improbable conjecture, that some of these Dace lived alone like monks, in tents or caves; but that others of them lived together in built cities, and thence were called big such names as implied the same. it the metropolis of the country. He also built a wall round Betharamphtha, which was itself a city also, and called it Julius, from the name of the emperor's wife. When Philip also had built Paneas, a city at the fountains of Jordan, he named it Cesarea. He also advanced the village Bethsaida, situate at the lake of Gennesareth, unto the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it contained, and its other grandeur, and called it by the name of Julias, the same name with Caesar's daughter. 2. As Coponius, who we told you was sent along with Cyrenius, was exercising his office of procurator, and governing Judea, the following accidents happened. As the Jews were celebrating the feast of unleavened bread, which we call the Passover, it was customary for the priests to open the temple gates just after midnight. When, therefore, those gates were first opened, some of the Samaritans came privately into Jerusalem, and threw about dead men's bodies in the cloisters; on which account the Jews afterward excluded them out of the temple, which they had not used to do at such festivals; and on other accounts also they watched the temple more carefully than they had formerly done. A little after which accident Coponius returned to Rome, and Marcus Ambivius came to be his successor in that government; under whom Salome, the sister of king Herod, died, and left to Julia [Caesar's wife] Jamnia, all its toparchy, and Phasaelis in the plain, and Archelais, where is a great plantation of palm trees, and their fruit is exceilent in its kind. After him came Annius Rufus, under whom died Casar, the second emperor of the Romans, the duration of whose reign was fifty-seven years, besides six months and two days (of which time Antonius ruled together with him fourteen years; but the duration of his life was seventy-seven years ;) upon whose death Tiberius Nero, his wife Julia's son, succeeded. He was now the third emperor; and he sent Valerius Gratus to be procurator of Judea, and to succeed Annius Rufus. This man deprived Ananus of the high priesthood, and appointed Ismael, the son of Phabi, to be high priest. He also deprived him in a little time, and ordained Eleazar, the son of Ananus, who had been high priest before, to be high priest; which office, when he had held for a year, Gratus deprived him of it, and gave the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus; and, when he had possessed that dignity no longer than a year, Joseph Caiaphas was made his suc. cessor. When Gratus had done these things, he went back to Rome, after he had tarried in Judea eleven years, when Pontius Pilate came as his successor. 3. And now Herod the tetrarch, who was in great favour with Tiberius, built a city of the same name with him, and called it Tiberias. He built it in the best part of Galilee, at the lake of Gennesareth. There are warm baths, at a little distance from it, in a village named Emmaus. Strangers came and inhabited this city; a great number of the inhabitants were Galileans also; and many were ne. cessitated by Herod to come thither out of the country belonging to him, and were by force compelled to be its inhabitants: some of them were persons of condition. He also admitted poor people, and those such as were collected from all parts, to dwell in it. Nay, some of them were not quite freemen; and these he was a be. nefactor to, and made them free in great numbers; but obliged them not to forsake the city, by building them very good houses at his own expenses, and by giving them land also: for he was sensible, that to make this place a habitation was to transgress the Jewish ancient laws, because many sepulchres were to be here taken away, in order to make room for the city Tiberias;* whereas our laws pronounce, that such inhabitants are unclean for seven days.t 4. About this time died Phraates, king of the Parthians, by the treachery of Phraataces his son, upon the occasion following: When Phraates had had legiti * We may here take notice, as well as in the parallel parts of the books Of the War, B. ii. ch. ix. sect. 1, that after the death of Herod the Great, and the succession of Archelaus, Josephus is very brief in his accounts of Judea, till near his own time. I suppose the reason is, that after the large history of Nicolaus of Damascus, including the life of Herod, and probably the succession and first actions of his sons, he had but few good histories of those times before him. + Numb. xix. 11–14. imate sons of his own, he had also an Italian maid-servant, whose name was Thermusa, who had been formerly sent to him by Julius Cæsar, among other presents. He first made her his concubine; but he being a great admirer of her beauty, in process of time having a son by her, whose name was Phraataces, he made her his legitimate wife, and had a great respect for her. Now she was able to persuade him to do any thing that she said, and was earnest in procuring the government of Parthia for her son; but still she saw that her endeavours would not succeed, unless she could contrive how to remove Phraates's legitimate sons out [of the kingdom:] so she persuaded him to send those his sons as pledges of his fidelity to Rome; and they were sent to Rome accordingly, because it was not easy for him to contradict her commands. Now while Phraataces was alone brought up in order to succeed in the government, he thought it very tedious to expect that government by his father's donation [as his successor :] he therefore formed a treacherous design against his father by his mother's assistance, with whom, as the report went, he had criminal conversation also. So he was hated for both these vices, while his subjects esteemed this [wicked] love of his mother to be no way inferior to his parricide; and he was by them in a sedition expelled out of the country, before he grew too great, and died. But as the best sort of Parthians agreed together that it was impossible they should be governed without a king, while also it was their constant practice to choose one of the family of Arsaces (nor did their law allow of any others; and they thought this kingdom had been sufficiently injured already by the marriage with an Italian concubine, and by her issue,) they sent ambassadors, and called Orodes [to take the crown ;] for the multitude would not otherwise have borne them; and though he were ac cused of very great cruelty, and was of an untractable temper, and prone to wrath, yet still he was one of the family of Arsaces. However, they inade a conspiracy against him, and slew him, and that, as some say, at a festival, and among their sacrifices (for it is the universal custom there to carry their swords with them ;) but as the more general report is, they slew him when they had drawn him out a hunting. So they sent ambassadors to Rome, and desired they would send one of those that were there as pledges, to be their king. Accordingly, Vonones was preferred before the rest, and sent to them (for he seemed capable of such great fortune, which two of the greatest kingdoms under the sun now offered him, his own and a foreign one.) However, the barbarians soon changed their minds, they being naturally of a mutable disposition, upon the supposal that this man was not worthy to be their governor; for they could not think of obeying the commands of one that had been a slave (for so they called those that had been hostages,) nor could they bear the ignominy of that name: and this was the more intolerable, because then the Parthians must have such a king set over them, not by right of war, but in a time of peace. So they presently invited Artabanus, king of Media, to be their king, he being also of the race of Arsaces. Artabanus complied with the offer that was made to him, and came to them with an army. So Vonones met him; and at first the multitude of the Parthians stood on his side, and he put his army in array, but Artabanus was beaten, and fled to be mountains of Media. Yet did he a little time after gather a great army together, and fought with Vonones, and beat him; whereupon Vonones fled away on horseback, with a few of his attendants about him, to Seleucia [upon Tigris.] So when Artabanus had slain a great number, and this after he had gotten the victory by reason of the very great dismay the barbarians were in, he retired to Ctesiphon with a great number of his people; and so he now reigned over the Parthians. But Vonones fled away to Armenia; and as soon as he came thither, he had an inclination to have the government of the country given him, and sent ambassa dors to Rome [for that purpose.] But because Tiberius refused it him, and be cause he wanted courage, and because the Parthian king threatened him, and sent ambassadors to him to denounce war against him if he proceeded; and because he had no way to take to regain any other kingdom (for the people of authority |